If say, Queen Margrethe in her role as head of state were to visit USA, she will drop by the White House, or in another way meet President Obama.
Not doing so would, diplomatically speaking, be considered extremely rude.

Exceptions to that rule are as a thumbrule:
A) Heads of states visting the UN. - In which case they are not obliged to say hello to the US President. - Sometimes to the relief of that president!
B) Heads of states passing through US territory. In airports or territorial waters.
C) Heads of states who are on holiday as private persons in USA.

You may remember that President Obama visited DK last year in connection with which city was selected for the Olympic games.
President Obama's visit lasted only a few hours.
Eventhough he was not visiting Denmark as such, he was there as the US head of state and as such he was obliged to pay the Danish head of state a visit. I.e. QMII.

The COP15 was a UN event and as such the visiting heads of states were not obliged to pay a curtesy call to QMII.

M&F are only representatives of the Danish head of state and Denmark and as such they will naturally meet with a US representative at some level. But it would, diplomatically speaking, be considered significant if they were to meet with the US head of state himself.

The diplomatic rulebook was discussed at length during the IOC and UN event in Copenhagen last year.

07-06-2010 Bicycle Washington 5th and last day of Prince Frederik visit to Washington. The Prince ride on his bike the League of American Bicylists hosts Royal D.C. Ride in Washington. The purpose of the ride was to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Danish Embassy and to get the word out about the importance of getting kids on bikes.

07-06-2010 Washington 5th and last day of Princess Mary visit to Washington.
The Princess participate in Women Deliver. Women deliver explores human rights, medical issues and poverty in relation to women around the world.

Both Mary and Frederik seem to have carried themselves really well during this visit. They both seem very engaged with wherever they are and whomever they're with.

I love the video of Mary speaking Danish that lancchick posted. I've always thought she had an unusually lovely voice. Can any of our Danish speakers tell us how her Danish is in the video?

Let's start with what she said: "Mortality among mothers is one of the world's most overlooked human disasters. Every minute a mother die during pregnancy or while giving birth. 99 % of these deaths occour in the developing countries".

At the end she said: Q: Why does it mean so much to you (formal you) personally?
- "Because we must invest in women around the world. Because women take care of their children, their families, society and their country".

She is a fast talker! This is conversation speed or rather discussion speed.
Her mastery of Danish is clearly excellent. I'd say that in this segment, she is obviously thinking in Danish.
She is tripping over some of the words in the last answer, not because she is looking for words in Danish but because she is looking for the right phrase to best illustrate her opinion.

She has a distinct accent, though not as distinct as it sometimes is. Born as an English speaker, she has problems with some of the Danish sounds. That's very typical.

She made no grammattical mistakes at all.
One of her most common grammattical mistakes, and it's typical for English speakers, even for those who have been in the country for many years, is that "the" before a nuon does not exist in Danish.
So she sometimes says: "den bog = that book, instead of bogen = the book".

I wanted to share this with you. Yesterday I saw Princess Mary and Caroline Heering here in Washington DC. I was coming out of a store and I saw both of them walking in Chevy Chase . I decided to follow for a little while to see them more closely. They were both wearing casual dresses and ballerinas.They were being escorted by two bodyguards who followed them at a prudential distance. They walked a couple of blocks and entered to Barneys New York ( Clothing Store). I entered too and tried to look at them more closely. I was impressed by Caroline, she has beautiful face features and looks very beatiful. Definitively she is more an eye catcher than Mary.

They were both speaking in Danish and tried and bought some clothes. Mary is not bad looking, but definitively she would not stand out in a crowd . Caroline is much more attractive.

wow! what experience !!!!!, thank you for sharing with us, how did you recongnize her ? are you a royal fun?, I must think that I always though that Caroline is prettier than Mary but she is not in the spolight like her so we do not see her so much and Like always is a matter of taste. I think from and ordinary girl in Australa she had a well organize group of people to transform her in the beauty that she is today but I am sure any of us with the same group of people will look like princess too, of course you have to have a good canvas to start with,
anyway going back to your experience, I bet it was thrilling! I did not think she had time for shopping or any personal thing to do! go to incognito to shopping this is great!!!! and of course here in the US nobody recognize her so easy!

I met her at the NovoNordisk health fair event on Sunday morning here -- I couldn't really resist it. It seems to me she has to keep a small smile on her face at all times cause of the cameras. She and Fred were dropped off on the far side of the health fair from where the arrival photo op was supposed to happen and when all the photogs realized they went running after them - even as Fred and Mary walked to the correct side of the health fair for the arrival photo op after all. They did not speak, only the ambassador spoke. She shook my hand and posed for a photo with her arm around me, very nice of her. She especially seemed to smile at all the children present. She doesn't seem to have an Australian accent anymore or if she does it's not very broad.
I watched the basketball shootaround and all I can say is she was very confident when she threw the basket that went in. The next shot was an airball but she didn't seem to care.
I spoke with Caroline Heering for a minute also and she speaks perfect English with an accent.

It may even be a little 'refreshing' for them that they should surrounded by people, even if only for an hour or so, who don't really know who they are. People can clearly tell they are persons of media interest, and if close enough may notice a security pass or something with their style and title on it, but otherwise, they are just two people engaging others in conversation showing an interest in real issues.

Oh I don't think they can be nearly authentic as that with all the Danish cameras there. It was a relaxed informal event and they both acted friendly and interested but there was no doubt that they were constantly aware of the cameras.

Oh I don't think they can be nearly authentic as that with all the Danish cameras there. It was a relaxed informal event and they both acted friendly and interested but there was no doubt that they were constantly aware of the cameras.

But that's part and parcel of their position. Being aware doesn't mean they are being disingenuous.

They can't shy away from the media, so they adapt to it. But them adapting doesn't mean they are being anything other than who they are. They just become mindful of what they say and how it's said.

In the US, Frederik and Mary are virtually unknown and expectedly so. Even with the media contingent that travelled with them to the US, they appeared to interact rather modestly with those they met (particularly Mary, but that's often the case); Moreso than when back home in Denmark I'd endeavour to say. It's the same when they have travelled to Australia, again, particularly where Mary is concerned.

They are royal, but they are not our royals'. They don't seem to maintain such a sedate distance, for use of a better expression, as can often be the case when interacting with fellow Danes'.